Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-07-09
/. o. G. T. COLUMN.
Edited andCOnducted by the Independent
Order Of Good Templars.
A LEARNED ARGUMENT ON THE
LEGALITY OF PROHIBITION.
Tennessee Laws on the Liquor Traffic
By Judge E. H. East, of Nashville,
Tennessee.

over liquor making and selling is I'M
limited in Tennessee, and that the
power has been conceded for years.
No respectable lawyer or judge now
questions the constitutionality of
these acts. They have been passed
upon time and again by the courts,
and in every instance have been up
held as constitutional and wise en-
actments. That each State is the
sovereign and final arbiter and judge
upon the question of the right to
manufacture and sell liquor within
her borders has been settled so often
by State and national tribunals that
it has ceased to be a question to be
argued, and no lawyer would at
tempt to argue it.
A license to sell liquor is a mere
temporary permit to do what would
otherwise be unlawful, and is not
property many legal or constitutional
sense. They may be revoked by the
State before their expiration. This
has been so held by the Supreme
court of Texas az Texas, 4lS,) in
Iowa q Iowa, 1861, in New York GA
New York, 657,) and in every other
State where the question has been
raised. 1t matters not that the leg
islature has appropriated the money
derived for a sale of the license to
the support of its paupers, or other
specific purposes (see IA Illinois, 142).
Having granted a license for which
the licenses paid one hundred dollars,
the State can revoke the license un-
less an additional amount is paid az
Texas, 418).
The State is not bound to continue
granting licenses for all succeeding
years. The liquor dealer buys the
right to do for one month six months,
or twelve months what he could not
do legally without the license. Al
the expiration Of the time the State
may lawfully say that l will not con.
tinue to grant you a license, and
forbid you carrying on your occupa.
ton in my borders.
The State at one time granted tC
licensees the right to carry on lotte
ries, but in 1884 she forbade it.
The State for many years granted
licenses to merchants to sell pistols
but she has stopped it. The State
allowed merchants to sell bowie
knives and other deadly weapons
but she has now forbidden it.
When she forbade the further sail
of pistols, lotteries, land bowie-knives
persons who had previously dealt il
these articles had them on hand, blu
were forced to submit to the law, o
dispose of them in other States, wher
their sale was not forbidden. So i
will and must be with the whisk,
men.
When the four-mile law went int,
effect there were many saloons al
ready established within that dis
lance OF an institution of learning
They ceased to do business or sol
stuff at other places. Any licensee i
today liable to have his bushes
broken by the establishment within
four miles of his saloon of an incol
porated institution of learning. Thi
has been done time and again in thi
State under the operation of the -four
mile law.
So we see that the State is sovel
eign in this matter, and persons i
censed to keep saloons have nc higl
er guarantees than did merchant
who sold pistols, etc.
These acts do not impair the obi
gationo of contracts because their effeC
is to lessen the value of liquors Owne
in the State previous to, and held a
the time of its passage. No coul
holds at this day that a license t
sell liquors, Notwithstanding a fe
may have been paid giving the latte
vested rights protected by the Coz
StitutiOn of the United States. (Se
case of Beer Company VS.. Massachl
sets, 81 United States Reports, 49,
h., 497; 3 Michigan, $50; 26 Coz
necticut, 179.
1t has been argued (but not ser
ously) that these prohibitOry laws al
in conflict with Sec. s of our Bill
Rights. This section is as follows
THAT no man shall be taken or in
prisoned or deprived of his freehol
liberties or privileges Or Outlawed
eXiled, or in any manner destroye
or deprived of his life, liberty, {
property, but by the judgment Of h
peers or the law of the land" \
lawyer would now attempt to lodg
an argument AGAINST the mower {